When it comes to concert productions, we’re living through an era when the biggest stars seem locked in an ever-accelerating game of one-upmanship. So it was no surprise Tuesday night that pop music’s top hit-maker is stepping up with his own contribution to that extravagant arms race.

Drake hit Detroit for the first of two concerts at Little Caesars Arena, bringing an in-the-round show that put him on a colossal stage teeming with high-tech indulgences. It was certainly eye-popping, but not always to the benefit of the personable singer-rapper: His main calling card — a sense of heart-to-heart connection — was often squashed by the scope of the stuff surrounding him.

Watching the complex visual spectacle Tuesday night, it was easy to see why this Aubrey & the Three Migos Tour was forced to scrap its first two weeks of dates to get the production in shape. That scheduling shuffle turned Detroit into the tour’s second stop, following a Sunday opener in Kansas City, but even here it was clear the technical kinks are still getting hammered out.

Drake, playing for an estimated crowd of about 18,000, followed a polished Ford Field visit from Beyoncé and Jay-Z on Monday, which meant Detroit got three of pop music’s A-list heavyweights on consecutive nights. (Drake and his tour partners, the Atlanta rap trio Migos, had popped into Ford Field for the Bey-Jay festivities.)

Adding to the 24-hour star power was Stevie Wonder, who quietly made it to LCA to attend Drake’s show. The iconic Motown star was in Detroit Tuesday to visit Aretha Franklin as she battles serious health issues.

Rattling off hits and hooks in quick succession, Drake worked a big stage centered in the arena, where he opened with “Talk Up” and “Mob Ties” cloaked by an opaque scrim. Above him hung a wraparound screen flashing graphics and live video; at his feet was a floor that served as a video-mapping surface — an impressive sight that had Drake roaming atop rivers of lava, waves, palm fronds, swimming ladies and a massive iPhone screen.

It was a night that brought liquidy drops of pyro raining down, a yellow-Ferrari inflatable cruising over the crowd for “Yes Indeed,” floating stars provided by mini-drones, and lasers that “drew” a lined basketball court on the stage while a crew member erected a regulation hoop.

That last trick helped introduce the Detroit Pistons’ Stanley Johnson to the stage for a shooting challenge: With Drake emceeing, the forward nailed a free throw to earn $250 for a chosen fan — but missed the three-point and half-court shots that could have brought her $2,500 more.

In one sense, all the spectacle was worthy of Drake’s stature: He’s the most commercially successful recording artist of his time, and music from his sprawling new album “Scorpion” dominates the charts. The night was packed with crowd-pleasing hits old and new — “Over,” “Started from the Bottom,” “I’m Upset,” “In My Feelings,” the closing “God’s Plan.”

Putting aside his trademark sing-songy raps for a bit, Drake slipped into crooning mode for serviceable quiet-storm fare that tucked a slowed-down cover of Michael Jackson’s “Rock With You” alongside “After Dark” and “Jaded.” Migos, who had opened with a bounding 50-minute set of synchronized rapid-fire rhymes and stacked raps, returned to join Drake for a stretch that included their collaboration “Walk it Talk It.”

But Drake’s production may have been too flashy for its own good. While hip-hop leading men such as Kanye West and Jay-Z have mastered the craft of performing solo amid gargantuan stagecraft — managing to enlarge their presence — Drake was somehow diminished on Tuesday. Too often the show overwhelmed the soul of the performance, disconnecting the rapper from the audience via the distractions and supersized eye candy.

And there was a perfunctory feel to the set, as Drake rattled through 40-plus numbers in 90 minutes, most of them truncated. Having too many hits to your name may be a happy career problem, but it’s one that must be negotiated in concert nonetheless, and Drake’s solution — slicing and dicing at the expense of letting something blossom — isn’t ideal.

It was clear the tour is still getting on track. There were sloppy moments Tuesday night, from a glitchy video feed that pixelated, froze and was finally turned off midway through Drake's set, to drones that struggled to land properly. Crews that started work Monday were still getting the stage in shape Tuesday evening — causing an hour delay that kept concertgoers waiting at the LCA doors. (Planned show opener Roy Woods was forced to cancel his set.)

By going past the show’s allotted time window, Drake was on the hook for premium staffing fees, which he acknowledged during the 11 p.m. hour: “Tell ‘em I’ll handle (it).”

The show was at its best when Drake pulled on the reins and let things breathe, as he did during a closing stretch capped by “God’s Plan.” At one point, he celebrated his long relationship with Detroit, recounting youthful days when “I used to drive over from Toronto” to attend Windsor Sports Weekend or pick up his dad at the Greyhound bus station.

And he got earnestly reflective, very much like the Drake we've known, late in the night.

“I don’t want to get too preachy, but I do want to say: There’s a lot of shit going on in the world right now. And these concerts always open my eyes, because I look around and I see people from all races, from all places, with all different kind of faces,” Drake said. “And we’re all inside one building — smoking and drinking and listening to music and getting along. ... This building tonight is how the world is supposed to be.”